Tuesday 20th August, 2019

YAOUNDE, Aug.
20, (Xinhua/GNA) - Cameroon's Yaounde Military Tribunal on Tuesday sentenced 10
separatist leaders seeking independence of the English-speaking part of the
country to life in prison over rebellion and terrorism charges.

The convicted have
10 days to appeal the verdict, judge Lt. Col. Misse Njone said while handing
down the sentence. Among them was Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, president of the
self-declared breakaway state called "Ambazonia" made up of the
Northwest and the Southwest, two Anglophone regions of Francophone-majority
Cameroon.

Tabe and 46
other separatist activists were arrested in Nigeria in January 2018 and then
extradited to Cameroon.

Cameroon
government forces and armed separatists have been clashing since 2017 after the
separatists declared the "independence" of the two Anglophone
regions.

Over 300
security forces have been killed since then, according to the Cameroon army.
The number of civilians and armed separatists killed in the clashes is not
officially available.